Baby of Britain's Chancellor Brown of dies in her parents' arms

By PAUL KELBIE

EDINBURGH - The 10-day-old daughter of British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown and his wife, Sarah, died yesterday in her parents' arms.

The distressed couple were driven away from the Simpson Memorial Maternity Pavilion in Edinburgh 40 minutes after Jennifer Jane died.

Fears had been mounting for her wellbeing since she was transferred to the specialist unit on Saturday, from Forth Park Hospital in Kirkcaldy, Fife, after a routine brain scan detected "cause for concern".

Her condition was such that the Browns had her baptised in the hospital's neo-natal unit on Monday. Jennifer, born on December 28 to the obvious delight of the Chancellor, was seven weeks premature and weighed only 2lb 4oz (1.02kg).

A Downing Street spokesman said Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was in Afghanistan, had been informed.

Jennifer was born by an emergency caesarean section after she was found to be suffering from intra-uterine growth restriction, a condition that occurs in 10 per cent of pregnancies and causes the child to have an irregular heart rate.

She was put in an incubator with an oxygen mask immediately after the birth. But until the end of last week doctors seemed happy with her progress. She was said to have been breathing independently and tolerating small amounts of food.

On Friday, the day before Jennifer suffered the cerebral haemorrhage, Sarah Brown had left the Forth Park Hospital and it had been expected that her daughter would be allowed home in a few weeks. But on discovering the brain haemorrhage, doctors had the baby transferred to the Edinburgh unit, where the Browns stayed at her bedside.

Love and marriage came late in life for Gordon Brown. A career politician, he always appeared to put party and country ahead of personal fulfilment and family life. But that changed less than two weeks ago when Brown, not generally a man given to public displays of emotion, announced that at the age of 50 he had become a father for the first time.

Scarcely able to contain his joy, he stood beaming outside the Forth Park Maternity Hospital to declare that his baby was the "most beautiful girl in the world".

Casually dressed in an open-necked shirt, the normally sober-suited Chancellor, whose watchword has always been prudence, gave an unprecedented show of enthusiasm as he spoke of the "overwhelming" experience of parenthood.

Doctors at the hospital disclosed Jennifer was suffering from jaundice - a common condition in premature babies - and was being fed by an intravenous drip, but no longer needed oxygen therapy because she was breathing for herself.

The next day it became clear that Jennifer was expected to stay in hospital until February and that Brown would take immediate paternity leave and more time off when his daughter left hospital.

The mood improved the next day, however, when he said she was "a lot better" and "looking very nice". By Friday, Sarah Brown left hospital, while staff said Jennifer no longer showed any signs of jaundice, was being treated in the neo-natal unit and had gained weight. Jennifer was also said to be "tolerating small amounts of food".

The situation then took a turn for the worse on Saturday. An ultrasound examination showed "cause for concern" and she was transferred to Edinburgh.

From Sunday, the Browns stayed at their daughter's bedside at the neo-natal unit, one of the country's top facilities.

The couple did not emerge from the hospital at all and no news was released concerning how the baby was.

But yesterday, when the Browns left the hospital via a side entrance, their faces told the tragic story. Jennifer had died an hour earlier.

- INDEPENDENT